Prior to submission, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines detailed below. Manuscripts that do not conform to the submission guidelines may be returned without review.
Submission
Submit manuscripts electronically through the Manuscript Submission Portal.
Lisa Miller
Columbia University
Len Sperry
Florida Atlantic University
General correspondence may be directed to the Editorial Office.
The Spirituality in Clinical Practice (SCP) Editorial Board holds the highest standards of scholarly excellence of an APA publication. Manuscripts are published in the form of Original Articles, Reviews, Practice Case Reports, Commentaries, and Reflections. The review process takes into account innovation and new insight for the field and a clear and scholarly exposition.
Research articles are highly encouraged on clinical conceptualization or settings, including studies on models, processes, or treatment approaches. Treatment studies may include clinical trials at any phase; studies on feasibility, curative factors, strategy, process, efficacy, or effectiveness; and meta-analytic or mixed-methods studies.
Discussion fostered through the SCP "round table" format weds incisive insight with a tone of interest and appreciation for fellow contributors, whose willingness to engage opens terrain for the field. With sound and careful clinical judgment, authors are encouraged to take intellectual risk around forging new ideas for practice that ultimately may pose new questions for research.
Commentary published on Original Articles, Reviews, or Practice Case Reports is then followed by author reply. Upon submission, authors have the option to propose colleagues for Commentary with whom such discussion will be revealing of new ideas for SCP readers. Authors may or may not submit a request for engagement in Commentary.
Submission Types
Original Articles
Original Articles may propose new or emerging practice models; shed insight into existing clinical issues (such as PTSD within the military or refractory recurrent depression); show psychosocial developmental processes that might be fostered through psychospiritual practice; highlight psychosocial models underlying forms of psychopathology, resilience, or wellness; interpret a body of practice experiences; or report on existing practice yet to be broadly disseminated across the field. Original Articles may reach across traditionally distinct clinical professions, synthesize models, or integrate research with clinical experience. To allocate space across authors, Original Articles generally run 18–26 typed, double-spaced pages, including references.
Reviews
Reviews may reexamine or synthesize psychospiritual approaches or movements, reveal opportunity for innovation, or indicate possibility for shared models, theories, or techniques. Reviews generally fall within 18–26 typed, double-spaces pages, including references.
Practice Case Reports
Practice Case Reports share in narrative form the innovations in practice approaches. Often a psychospiritual practice technique or new practice methods can be illustrated best through a selected case, rather than nested in a theoretical or historical exposition. Practice Case Reports can be presented without extensive theory, in the hopes of informing new or emerging models. Practice Case Reports are reviewed for novelty of approach, new insight, and clarity. Cases may range considerably in length from 4 to 15 pages, based upon the duration of treatment, detail of the interventions, and number of clients (for instance, in group treatment) involved in the case report.
Commentary
Commentary creates a sense of community "round table" discussion for sharing insights, innovation, and experiences in response to Original Articles, Reviews, or Practice Case Reports. Published Commentary is written in collegial tone, within a sense of shared discovery. Commentary may relay related or contrasting clinical experiences or perspectives, offer new insight, or suggest areas for extension or consideration (6–9 typed, double-spaced pages for Commentary; 3–5 typed, double-spaced pages for Author Reply).
Reflections
Reflections are insights and advice from the "front lines," in the form of personal perspectives written in the first person, offered by clinicians and others in the field. Reflections may explore spirituality in treatment and describe first-hand experiences that illustrate particularly effective treatment techniques or approaches to resolving difficult situations and challenges, recognizing that the rapidly emerging field of psychospiritual treatment will benefit from such personal insight. Reflections are relatively brief ranging from 4 to 7 typed, double-spaced pages in length.
Manuscript Preparation
Manuscripts submitted to Spirituality in Clinical Practice should be prepared in accordance with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition (2010).
Review APA's Checklist for Manuscript Submission before submitting your article.
If your manuscript was mask reviewed, please ensure that the final version for production includes a byline and full author note for typesetting.
Formatting
Double-space all copy. Other formatting instructions, as well as instructions on preparing tables, figures, references, metrics, and abstracts, appear in the Manual.
Below are additional instructions regarding the preparation of display equations, computer code, and tables.
Display Equations
We strongly encourage you to use MathType (third-party software) or Equation Editor 3.0 (built into pre-2007 versions of Word) to construct your equations, rather than the equation support that is built into Word 2007 and Word 2010. Equations composed with the built-in Word 2007/Word 2010 equation support are converted to low-resolution graphics when they enter the production process and must be rekeyed by the typesetter, which may introduce errors.
To construct your equations with MathType or Equation Editor 3.0:
- Go to the Text section of the Insert tab and select Object.
- Select MathType or Equation Editor 3.0 in the drop-down menu.
If you have an equation that has already been produced using Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 and you have access to the full version of MathType 6.5 or later, you can convert this equation to MathType by clicking on MathType Insert Equation. Copy the equation from Microsoft Word and paste it into the MathType box. Verify that your equation is correct, click File, and then click Update. Your equation has now been inserted into your Word file as a MathType Equation.
Use Equation Editor 3.0 or MathType only for equations or for formulas that cannot be produced as Word text using the Times or Symbol font.
Computer Code
Because altering computer code in any way (e.g., indents, line spacing, line breaks, page breaks) during the typesetting process could alter its meaning, we treat computer code differently from the rest of your article in our production process. To that end, we request separate files for computer code.
In Online Supplemental Material
We request that runnable source code be included as supplemental material to the article. For more information, visit Supplementing Your Article With Online Material.
In the Text of the Article
If you would like to include code in the text of your published manuscript, please submit a separate file with your code exactly as you want it to appear, using Courier New font with a type size of 8 points. We will make an image of each segment of code in your article that exceeds 40 characters in length. (Shorter snippets of code that appear in text will be typeset in Courier New and run in with the rest of the text.) If an appendix contains a mix of code and explanatory text, please submit a file that contains the entire appendix, with the code keyed in 8-point Courier New.
Tables
Use Word's Insert Table function when you create tables. Using spaces or tabs in your table will create problems when the table is typeset and may result in errors.
Submitting Supplemental Materials
APA can place supplemental materials online, available via the published article in the PsycARTICLES® database. Please see Supplementing Your Article With Online Material for more details.
Abstract and Keywords
All manuscripts must include an abstract containing a maximum of 250 words typed on a separate page. After the abstract, please supply up to five keywords or brief phrases.
References
List references in alphabetical order. Each listed reference should be cited in text, and each text citation should be listed in the References section.
Examples of basic reference formats:
- Journal Article:
Hughes, G., Desantis, A., & Waszak, F. (2013). Mechanisms of intentional binding and sensory attenuation: The role of temporal prediction, temporal control, identity prediction, and motor prediction. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 133–151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0028566
- Authored Book:
Rogers, T. T., & McClelland, J. L. (2004). Semantic cognition: A parallel distributed processing approach. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Chapter in an Edited Book:
Gill, M. J., & Sypher, B. D. (2009). Workplace incivility and organizational trust. In P. Lutgen-Sandvik & B. D. Sypher (Eds.), Destructive organizational communication: Processes, consequences, and constructive ways of organizing (pp. 53–73). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Figures
Graphics files are welcome if supplied as Tiff or EPS files. Multipanel figures (i.e., figures with parts labeled a, b, c, d, etc.) should be assembled into one file.
The minimum line weight for line art is 0.5 point for optimal printing.
For more information about acceptable resolutions, fonts, sizing, and other figure issues, please see the general guidelines.
When possible, please place symbol legends below the figure instead of to the side.
APA offers authors the option to publish their figures online in color without the costs associated with print publication of color figures.
The same caption will appear on both the online (color) and print (black and white) versions. To ensure that the figure can be understood in both formats, authors should add alternative wording (e.g., "the red (dark gray) bars represent") as needed.
For authors who prefer their figures to be published in color both in print and online, original color figures can be printed in color at the editor's and publisher's discretion provided the author agrees to pay:
- $900 for one figure
- An additional $600 for the second figure
- An additional $450 for each subsequent figure
Permissions
Authors of accepted papers must obtain and provide to the editor on final acceptance all necessary permissions to reproduce in print and electronic form any copyrighted work, including test materials (or portions thereof), photographs, and other graphic images (including those used as stimuli in experiments).
On advice of counsel, APA may decline to publish any image whose copyright status is unknown.
Publication Policies
APA policy prohibits an author from submitting the same manuscript for concurrent consideration by two or more publications.
See also APA Journals® Internet Posting Guidelines.
APA requires authors to reveal any possible conflict of interest in the conduct and reporting of research (e.g., financial interests in a test or procedure, funding by pharmaceutical companies for drug research).
Authors of accepted manuscripts are required to transfer the copyright to APA.
Ethical Principles
It is a violation of APA Ethical Principles to publish "as original data, data that have been previously published" (Standard 8.13).
In addition, APA Ethical Principles specify that "after research results are published, psychologists do not withhold the data on which their conclusions are based from other competent professionals who seek to verify the substantive claims through reanalysis and who intend to use such data only for that purpose, provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and unless legal rights concerning proprietary data preclude their release" (Standard 8.14).
APA expects authors to adhere to these standards. Specifically, APA expects authors to have their data available throughout the editorial review process and for at least 5 years after the date of publication.
Authors are required to state in writing that they have complied with APA ethical standards in the treatment of their sample, human or animal, or to describe the details of treatment.
The APA Ethics Office provides the full Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct electronically on its website in HTML, PDF, and Word format. You may also request a copy by emailing or calling the APA Ethics Office (202-336-5930). You may also read "Ethical Principles," December 1992, American Psychologist, Vol. 47, pp. 1597–1611.
Other Information
